Roanoke
by Lt.Cmmdr. XFileUSS Enter
Summary: Mulder insists that the events at the Roanoke Colony are an X-File. Scully doesn't. But when a woman appears in the desert claiming to be Anasazi, Mulder can't help but to make a connection. I tried, and it's an O.K. story. Hey! I'm new at this!*FINISHED*
1. Man's Equal?

Disclaimer:None mine aside from characters I invented. I apologize: I know next to nothing about science/medicine, I made some stuff up. Again, I know nothing about the Pueblo language, and I made up words to be Anasazi.  
  
Note:Please review!  
  
Another Note:Any suggestions for a better title??  
  
Other OTHER Note: Hehe. Just kidding.  
  
March 1 Present-Day Salt Lake City, Utah A.D.1300  
  
A chill swept through the air as 20-year-old Anasazi Kosa'peg'gnoci prepared the mid-day meal. Any day now, the Summer Festival would be held, but strangely, she wasn't excited. Rather, she felt the uncomfortable feeling of being watched, or that her people were endanger. She was always being told by her mother and husband that she was paranoid, but on this particular day, Kosa'peg'gnoci felt that her paranoia was not the cause of this uneasiness. She wondered about this sudden sensation, as she paused and looked up at the sky. The sky.  
  
"AKA PORRERRA! ASOPOLIITII CHUCATA!!!!!" "LOOK! LOOK AT THE SKY!"  
  
A metal sphere floated above the clouds. There was no name for it, but there were legend of those who had canoes who could walk the stars.  
  
Kosa'peg'gnoci felt a shiver run down her spine. Those who had canoes who could walk the stars were not to be trusted, as they were told.  
March 1, 2003 FBI Headquarters 10:40 A.M.  
  
"This is an X-File!" Mulder shouted into Scully's face. She rolled her eyes and sat on the edge of her desk. Well, Mulder's desk, really, though she liked to pretend it was her desk. She also liked to pretend that it was clean.  
  
"I'm sorry, Mulder," Scully shook her head with a wry smile spreading across her face. "It isn't an X-File. It will never be an X-File. Sorry."  
  
"Scully," Mulder was getting exasperated. You would THINK that after so many years of being stuck together, she would acknowledge the existence of a conspiracy, and that this conspiracy went back a longer amount of time than anyone imagined.  
  
"Scully," Mulder pleaded, "These-These people. They upped and dissapeared! They.....The only left the word "Croatoan" behind them!"  
  
Scully leaned across to look Mulder in the face.  
  
"ROANOKE IS NOT AN X-FILE!" She smiled slightly. "Wake up and smell the coffee, Mulder."  
  
"Then how do you account for it?"  
  
"They died."  
  
"They died." Mulder sounded almost amused.  
  
"Yes. They died." Scully looked around thinking. "I can think of a hundred reasons. Famine....Flood......Draught.....Indian raid. Homicide. Tornado. They were not abducted. Now are you gonna come getta coffee or aren't you?"  
  
Presently, there was a knock at their door.  
  
"Hey ya'. You guys ready?"  
  
Scully flung on her jacket. "Be right with you, Federico."  
  
Federico smiled, and walked over to a little cafe'.  
  
"Maybe SHE'LL appreciate it," Mulder mumbled, pocketing the file.  
  
Mulder and Scully walked out of the FBI building, and crossed the street. Whoever said that March came in like a lion and out like a lamb had never met this lion. Usually, by the beginning of March it was cold, but you got the idea that winter would eventually end, fantastic as it may sound. However, this particular year, March seemed to have no end, when it only just started. The horrific weather seeped into Scully's very bones, and chills ran through her spine. She was relieved once they entered the cafe' across the street. Happy to be greeted by the warmth of central heating.  
  
They caught the table Federico was sitting at. Mulder slid the file on Roanoke across to Federico.  
  
"What's this? A new case?" She smiled and opened the folder.  
  
"Mulder insists its an X-File."  
  
"You don't?" She stated blandly, looking up at Scully briefly.  
  
Scully shrugged. "It doesn't seem to have anything paranormal about it."  
  
"You hear of Roanoke?" Mulder cut in.  
  
"Sure. Only what I learned in school, though." She responded, never looking up from the paper she was examining. "The colonists' dissapeared without a trace-the only marking left was on a tree that read 'Croatoan.' " She closed the file. "So where's the X-File?"  
  
Mulder's jaw nearly dropped. Where's the X-File? Pardon? Was everyone blind except him?  
  
"These people they just....uped and dissapeared, I mean....."  
  
"There are thousands of explanations." Federico said. Where had Mulder had this conversation before? "I mean, the Croatoans were a nearby Indian tribe. Its highly likely there was an attack."  
  
"But then why no skeletons?"  
  
"They could have drowned. Been buried in a burial mound that's still being mistaken for a hill. They could have.....I don't know. They could be paved over with the coming of a new highway."  
  
"It's not an X-File." He finished her sentence for her.  
  
"Well....Yeah," Federico smiled at her coffee.  
  
Scully looked at Mulder with a sideways glance.  
  
"I won't say it."  
  
"I know, you told me so...."  
  
Scully smiled.  
  
"We're still taking it up."  
  
"What?"  
  
"I'm the king of this castle....this division....What I say goes."  
  
"Whatever happens to partnership?"  
  
"It went out the window with the idea of woman being man's equal."  
  
March 4, 2003 Roanoke Island  
  
Scully walked sullenly behind Mulder. Why was she here? The sky overhead pretty much screamed at her, "Ideot." But what could she do? Mulder was so persistent with this case......Even if it was pointless.  
  
"Scully! I found something!"  
  
Scully ran over, overjoyed at the prospect of maybe having something happen....Even if it was only that Mulder found a new species of beatle.  
  
"Mulder, its an arrowhead."  
  
Mulder smiled, nodding. Then Scully caught on.  
  
"Mulder, you may think it proves your point, but it doesn't. It just proves that there were Indians here."  
  
Mulder frowned and tossed the arrowhead into the woods. He couldn't believe Scully sometimes. Why did she have to be so, so, scientific? What ever happened to expecting the unexpected?  
  
He watched the arrowhead fly across, inbetween the trees, and land with a small thud in a pile of leaves. Fine, have it your way, Scully, he thought, But you said yourself that proving me wrong wasn't your only joy in life. So far, you seem to be contradicting yourself. He walked off towards the beach, and watched the water gently push on to shore, and then retreat. He could almost see the white sails of the ship as it arrived with new supplies for the colonists. And then he turned around and saw Scully battling misquitos.  
  
"There's something here." He stated for the last time, like the last umph before he gave up.  
  
"Let's go, Mulder." Scully almost sounded sympethetic as she headed back for their car. They drove back to D.C. in such silence that Scully seriously wondered if this meant the end of The X-Files for Mulder.  
  
The next morning, as Mulder looked over various tip with a discontented eye, and as Scully watched her usually energetic partner, look over his life's dream with distaste, a knock was heard, and the door opened. Federico stepped in, and surveyed the scene. Since the case she worked on with them, Federico regularly met the two for coffee, or just to see how things were goin'.  
  
"Is this a bad time?"  
  
Scully gave a laugh. The scene must have seemed terribly.....unusual.  
  
"No. Come in." She nodded to a folder in Federico's hand. "Whatch you got there?"  
  
Federico closed the door.  
  
"An X-File."  
  
Mulder didn't even acknodledge the word. Federico dropped her voice down about 12-knotches. "What's wrong with him?"  
  
"Depressed."  
  
"Roanoke?"  
  
"Yeah."  
  
Federico gave a weak grin. "Maybe this will cheer him up?" She smiled and strode over to Mulder's desk, plopping the papers down.  
  
"What's this?"  
  
"An X-File." She repeated. No response. She pushed it until it was under his nose. Sighing, he opened it up, if for no other reason than to get Federico to stop bugging him.  
  
"Apparently," Federico explained, as Mulder reviewed the stats, "an Indian woman, a Kosa'peg'gnoci, was found wandering the desert."  
  
Mulder closed the report. "That's great for her."  
  
Mulder's cold reproach left Federico in as chipper spirits as ever. "She claims to be an Anasazi. She speaks a language similar to Pueblo, so we can understand her a little."  
  
"Anasazi have been gone for centuries."  
  
"Right. And this lady has information that we don't have."  
  
"Point proven. Kook."  
  
"Her clothes are 1400 years old."  
  
"Repeat that last part?"  
  
Even Scully had to laugh as Mulder said that with a dead-pan expression.  
  
"A recent carbon-dating test to prove she's lying turned up that her clothes are 1400 years old, yet she is 80. She also has blood that matches no known nationality."  
  
"Okay. How'd she get there?"  
  
"We don't know. But she says she was abducted."  
  
Mulder was in quiet thought for sometime before anyone spoke again.  
  
"That's the connection." He stated, opening a filing cabinet a pulling out the file on Roanoke. "Colonists dissapear without trace. Anasazi dissapear without trace. That's the connection. Look. Anasazi even means "Ancient Aliens." "  
  
"No, Mulder...." Federico corrected, "Anasazi means 'Ancient Ones,' and there is no connection between this and Roanoke. Even I would really have to stretch my imagination for that one. So would you. But, I do think this woman is worth checking out. I do think her story has all the components of an X-File, connection or no."  
  
Mulder raised his eyebrows, and sighed.  
  
"Where is she?"  
  
"Utah. Salt Lake City, Utah."  
  
24 Hours Later Salt Lake City, Utah. St. Edmund's Hospital  
  
"Hi, we're here to see Kosa'peg'gnoci?" Scully smiled flipping her FBI badge.  
  
"Your business here?"  
  
"We're investigating her case." Mulder smiled.  
  
"Two doors down the corridor."  
  
THey rounded the bend and walked down the hallway. The sterile walls were a little.....too sterile. Its nice to have a clean hospital and all, but the janitor must have had OCD to keep it this clean.  
  
They went into the room, and sat down by Kosa'peg'gnoci's bed. Federico, who had tagged along "for the ride," asked the translator how she was doing.  
  
"So-so. Bad wounds."  
  
Mulder looked at the scar's on the woman's face. Definetly the marks of an abductee.  
  
"Can you ask her where she came from?" Mulder said, finally turning to the translator.  
  
"Epechu, whampiinossii?"  
  
"Errochsoto. Delataya noknosiipa."  
  
"She was taken by people from the sky."  
  
"Where was she taken?" Mulder frowned.  
  
"Echtu wolaseeoh, akway togowahko?"  
  
"Etu kaplee. Kapllee decor igloskino."  
  
"A canoe that sailed the stars."  
  
"Sounds like a craft to me," Mulder whispered to Scully aside.  
  
"Echtu wahmpiinegoski?" Federico asked Kosa'peg'gnoci.  
  
"You know Pueblo?" Scully was surprised. Federico shook her head.  
  
"I have a Pueblo friend who taught me some of her language, I speak it very brokenly."  
  
"Ahyantu wallokapayee nosayvakookallee. Emsajumakoro Ropesotao dayclositoaponitko. Arsodjsl sldooeaks. Utyrelo lorompek."  
  
"Ek maso?"  
  
"Ekumpalaytee. Serraynowasa."  
  
"Hinyonay. Akupah."  
  
"Akupah."  
  
Federico left the room, and Scully turned to the translator, the only other one who could have understood.  
  
"She asked if anyone else was there, and Kosa'peg'gnoci responded that all the members of her tribe, both from her village and others, were there, and that later on they picked up more people. People with pale skin like you, in long colorfull dresses, and simple white headpieces that spoke a language like yours. That these people wanted to go back to their island they called Roanoke, and that experiments were performed on them. Then your partner asked if they were still there, and she responded she was not sure, but that her people were." The translator seemed as surprised as them.  
  
Scully left the room to join Federico outside. She looked at the bright lights and felt like she was on trial.  
  
"What do you think?"  
  
"I think she is the connection." Federico paused, clearly amazed. "I wish Mulder and you the best of luck."  
  
Mulder emerged from the room, now carrying a piece of paper.  
  
"She's a fine artist, that Kosa'peg'gnoci."  
  
"What you have her do?" Federico inquired.  
  
Mulder flipped over the paper. Scully rolled her eyes, and Federico looked mezmorized. Apparently, Mulder had Kosa'peg'gnoci draw the other people she saw, and you could clearly see English colonists and bounty hunters.....or atleast, they looked like bounty hunters.  
  
He tucked the paper away.  
  
"I asked her how long after she was taken the others were beamed aboard.....She said she wasn't sure, but it felt like hundreds of years. And she doesn't know why she was the only one to be returned either."  
  
"Maybe because she was never abducted?"  
  
Mulder ignored Scully.  
  
"I think she's genuine, Mulder. And I shall leave you two to enjoy your investigation. I'm heading back to Washington."  
  
"Don't wanna keep the case?"  
  
Federico smiled at Scully. "I'd love to. Unfortunatly, Garaguso dug up some terrorist group who is threatening to release a black substance-biological weapon-to take over man kind. And, lucky us, we get to tackle it. Wish us luck."  
  
"We'll give you a ride to the airport." Scully offered.  
  
"Thanks."  
  
The drove her over to the airport, making light conversation along the way. Scully had every intention of booking a flight to leave for the next day, regardless of her no longer being man's equal. They waved goodbye to Federico at the gate, and watched her plane dissappear into the clouds from the rooftop. Scully turned to look at Mulder who was cracking yet another sunflower seed open.  
  
"What time do you wanna leave tomorrow?"  
  
Mulder removed a shell.  
  
"Tomorrow's no good. I have to question Kosa'peg'gnoci."  
  
"Mulder, we're leaving. I may no longer be man's equal, but if it weren't for woman, there would be no man."  
  
"And if it weren't for man there would be no woman." He smiled.  
  
"There. I am your equal." She said simply, picking up her cell phone and dialing a number. 


	2. Kiss Me, I'm Irish?

Two days later, much to Mulder's dissappointment, they were back in D.C., reasearching a new case. Although, Mulder's mind was still very much on Roanoke and the Anasazi woman.  
  
"Mulder." He aswered his cell.  
  
"Mulder? It's me. I did that autopsy you wanted on John Doe, and...." Her voice faded from Mulder's mind. Roanoke.....He was missing something at Roanoke. Where was the other connection?  
  
"What other connection?" Scully inquired. Mulder must have been thinking outloud again. "Mulder, are you even listening to me?"  
  
Silence.  
  
"What was the last thing you heard, Mulder?"  
  
"The part when you did that autopsy on Johnny-boy."  
  
Over at the lab, Scully rolled her eyes.  
  
"Mulder, I understand that this case is bugging you. I just don't understand what makes you so interested in it. ANd besides. If its a connection your looking for, Let's just assume Kosa'peg'gnoci is valid, that would be your connection, both to what happened to the Roanoke colonists, and to the Anasazi. Who done it solved. Case closed."  
  
"No," Mulder shook his head, removing a sunflower seed, "Case reopened. Something in Kosa'peg'gnoci's story doesn't jive."  
  
"What?" Scully sounded like she was only half-listening. She really wanted to get back the case at hand.  
  
"I don't know.......But something she said, or I read..........Or I read.....Scully, you go see what you can pull up on Johnny-boy, I'm gonna do a little reasearch here."  
  
"I hope your reasearching Mr. Doe, Mul-" Click. "Darn it, Mulder."  
  
Mulder pulled out the file from his cabinet that Federico had given him....He scanned it repeatedly. IT WAS something he had read, he was sure of that. He just couldn't find it now. THere was something wrong. There was someother connection. He knew there was. He could feel it in his bones.  
  
"1,400 years old...." He frowned, then whipped out a calculator from his desk draw. It was amazing he was able to find everything so quickly in that maze of junk.  
  
"2003 - 1400......703.........That's not right. The Anasazi were around until 1300 A.D......Then the carbon dating test is wrong.....Atleast......" He looked up. Why wasn't anything making sense. Even he couldn't make sense of it. And that was saying alot.  
  
"Mulder?" Scully walked into the room. "Mulder, give it a rest, will you?"  
  
"The carbon dating test is wrong, Scully." HE showed her the file.  
  
"So? She's a fraud." She met Mulder's unsatisfied gaze. "She's old, Mulder. She could be senile."  
  
"We need to go back to Roanoke....We missed something."  
  
"We missed nothing, Mulder." Heavens, what was it going to take to get it into his head? "There is nothing there to miss, and we are not going back."  
  
"Please, Scully. In honor of Valentine's day?" He begged in desperation.  
  
"Valentine's Day was last month."  
  
HE searched for ANOTHER excuse.  
  
"Kiss me, I'm Irish?" He asked hopefully.  
  
Scully got the cocked-head look we all know so well, yet cannot immitate. Mulder's attention was drawn to the TV, where the news was put on mute.  
  
"Fox news alert...." Lauri Dhue announced as he put the sound back on. "Archeaologists have just found a body on Roanoke Island, the site of the lost 17th century colonists who...."  
  
"Still wanna look at the murdered John Doe?"  
  
"YES."  
  
"I think the local P.D. Department can take care of that, Scully. I'll just call Detective Wright." He said smuggly, leaving Scully alone in the room, in the depths of despair and exasperation.  
  
Roanoke Island 4 Hours Later  
  
"What'd you find?" Mulder asked Agent Yin, the agent in charge, flipping his FBI badge.  
  
Yin lifted the roping for Mulder and Scully. It was a good thing Virginia was so close to D.C.  
  
"A body. It's.......Well, you be the judge." He pointed towards a secluded area down the beach.  
  
Mulder approached the body. The flashes from cameras had finally gone off, and he took a closer look. It was a female, 22 in age, he'd say. Dressed in a gown in the style of the 17th century.  
  
"Tell me you're not convinced, Scully?"  
  
"I'm not convinced."  
  
Mulder rolled his eyes.  
  
"After all you've seen? After all you've witnessed?"  
  
"I've seen things I can't explain, Mulder, and this I cannot explain. But this doesn't qualify as a shadow government catagory."  
  
"I'm not asking it to be."  
  
"Then let's go home."  
  
"It's part of the shadow government, Scully."  
  
Scully rolled her eyes and wandered down the beach.  
  
"Aren't you even interested as to the cause of death!?" He called out to Scully.  
  
She paused in her tracks. She was curious, though she was tempted to say no, and it was her duty as a doctor to help in the examination, it was in a sense, a Jane Doe.  
  
She turned around, and ran back to the body. She gave it a visual scan, then headed to the agent in charge. Mulder watched as she presumably explained she was a medical doctor, hoping to examine the body. Yin nodded her head, and Scully soon returned.  
  
"There going to bring Jane Doe over to the local forensics lab at the field office. I can examine the body there."  
  
Mulder smiled. He was truly gratefull that Scully was complying, though everything in her told her he was off his rocker.  
  
Scully looked at the body. OH, she HATED autopsies. At first, they were traumatic, they gave her nightmares. Now, she just hated the idea of cutting into a fellow homosapiensapien's flesh.  
  
"Autospy number 4482- -6684. The patient is a Jane Doe, time of death unkown, cause of death." She sighed. Then she continued, "To be determined. The visual scan seems to prove that she was puntrued in some form or another, each cheek having three puncture or hole marks in them, and some trauma to the forhead. We will begin by an incision to the chest cavity to examine her heart, arteries, and lung."  
  
Mulder would never admit it, but he was a little squimish when it came to this stuff. He excused himself, finding the fact that his cell phone was ringing the perfect excuse to leave the room.  
  
"Mulder," He asnwered, once he was outside.  
  
"Ay, Mulder? It's me."  
  
Mulder frowned.  
  
"Scully?"  
  
"No," Federico laughed, "It's the other me."  
  
Mulder thought a second.  
  
"Oh. Federico?"  
  
"The one the only."  
  
"Hey, what's up?"  
  
"Nothing very important. But a case has brought me back to Utah, I was wondering if when I finish you want me to talk to our friend, Kosa'peg'gnoci, see what else I can pull outta her."  
  
"That'd be great, Federico. I'm gonna see what I can dig up here. Did you hear about the body? At Roanoke?"  
  
"No. What body?"  
  
"A Jane Doe was found, on Roanoke Island where Scully and I were earlier today, wearing a 17th century gown. Neat, huh?"  
  
Federico's eyes nearly bulged out of her head.  
  
"My heavens, Mulder. How'd she get there?"  
  
"Unkown. Scully's examining her now. No suspects so far. Wanna know why?"  
  
"Cause she was abducted 400 years ago."  
  
"Very good."  
  
"Well, I did pass paranoia 101."  
  
"So, you think I'm being paranoid."  
  
"No. But I am a little doubtfull about some of this validity. I have no doubt that Kosa'peg'gnoci was abducted, but this lady here. Strange as her case is, Mulder, I'm afraid it doesn't make sense, because assuming that she IS from Roanoke, what's that whole 'Croatoan' being written on the tree thing got to do with it?"  
  
"Wild pow-ow one evening?"  
  
If she could have mastered it, Federico would have imitated the Scully- cock. Not that Mulder would have been able to see it anyway, but maybe he could have heard it.  
  
"Nice try, Mulder," Would have to do for now.  
  
Disclaimer: BLAH. Please Review. **************************************************************************** ******************************  
  
"It'd made sense on the way to the hospital."  
  
"You were probably half asleep. Its doubtfull you got any sleep last night the way you've been obssesing over this case."  
  
There was a slight pause as Garaguso was heard in the background saying that they had a lead.  
  
"Gotta go, Mulder. I heard Garaguso tell our contact he found something, I'll see what I can get from Kosa'peg'gnoci, give me a call and tell me what you've got tonight, talk soon, Bye!"  
  
Click.  
  
Mulder smiled. You had to love the way a New Yorker could say a run on sentence in one breath without even hyperventelating.  
  
Scully emerged from the "operating room" with her gloves still on.  
  
"You gotta see this, Mulder." 


	3. A Talk With Kosa'peg'gnoci

Disclaimer:All of the above. Yadda Yadda. All Done. Bye-Bye.  
Mulder followed her in. So close, and yet so far.  
  
"I had Agent Cotah do a carbon-dating test on this woman's clothes. 400 years old. But, she is, conclusively 22 years old. So, I took a sample of cells from several different locations, placed them under a microscope, and did a histogram. I turned up with this. Take a look." She placed several slides over a light. "This is the DNA in the cell that should have recorded moment-to-moment 400 years of this lady's life. It in fact, records over 22 years. The DNA is almost like an internal clock. It records every moment we are alive, and ages appropriately. Apparently, this lady had been given something, I don't know what, that has caused her aging process to slow so much, that it only aged her once every 18 years."  
  
Mulder looked at the charts, then at some other slides that Scully has yet to direct his attention to.  
  
"Those," she said, catching his gaze, "Are a toxin screening I ran. It should have picked up any unnatural toxin in the blood, and have indentified it. It found a toxin, but it regosters as unkown."  
  
Mulder paused to remove a a sunflower seed, trying not to drop it into the corpse.  
  
"Run a test and see if it matches that sample Federico took."  
  
"I don't have the sample wiht me."  
  
"It's in my office. But I do have the results with me. They got mixed in with the file Federico gave me regarding Kosa'peg'gnoci. Here." He handed them to her. She was obviously hoping to get out of this situation, to no avail, of course.  
  
Salt Lake City, Utah. St. Edmund's. Hospital.  
  
Federico entered the Anasazi's room, and asked the translator if she and the patient might speak privatly. The translator, Panus, finnally left, after some, degree of hesitation.  
  
Federico sat down.  
  
"Kosa'peg'gnoci? Mekusa loramotao Che'Federico." ("Hi, I'm Agent Federico.")  
  
"Mekusa."  
  
"Etulokpata?" ("Are you feeling better?")  
  
"Atopasa, katuu. Dolaremuso takata." ("Yes, Thank you. They say I may walk outside today.")  
  
"Opato, opato. Ayresogu latorequa?" (" Great, Great. May I ask you a few questions?")  
  
"Eklosee. Payto." ("I suppose. Go ahead.")  
  
"Atoo maka?" ("Who took you?")  
  
"Araynoso tequatowe." ("People who can walk the stars. We have legends about them.")  
  
"Paysorore.....Tell me about these legends."  
  
"We have many stories, but this one is a warning. The people who roam the universe cannot be trusted, for they are so imbalanced do to so much uprooting and a tumultous past, they have ruined their ideals forever."  
  
"So they abduct people."  
  
"They aren't random people," Kosa'peg'gnoci shook her head. "Planned people, people or races, that hold a special meaning to them."  
  
"Why did they take you and your people?"  
  
"Because we remind them of their past, their origins."  
  
"Their origins?"  
  
"All people who walk this earth came from the same race of the stars, but we, the Anasazi, and many other groups, had different ideals as these Taylotha Pahh, Unsettled ones, as we call them, who believed in vengence and getting their waay any way they can. They want advancment, and to control the universe, and to do that, they need to know the pysiology of other races. IT is WHY we were taken. But many don't believe the stories. At one time they did, but the children of the elders' have begun to disregard them."  
  
"We have stories to. About these Taylotha Pahh, though we call them aliens. Many believe they want to take over the earth, and to do so they want to make alien-human hybrids. They abduct us to experiment on us to test us, see if we will make suitable patients."  
  
"Do you believe these stories?"  
  
"I don't know," Federico looked around before reestablishing eye-contact, "Many do. Many don't. I feel that there are aliens, Taylotha Pahh, and some are bad. But I don't believe all are."  
  
"You would have made a good Anasazi, you try and be optomistic to what gives a premonition of evil."  
  
Federico smiled.  
  
"Anasazi? What does it mean?"  
  
"Ancient ones. It means that we are the original people, or the balanced people."  
  
"Balanced?"  
  
"Most at peace. Or at harmony with nature."  
  
Federico smiled.  
  
"Your village-"  
  
"Tekawathapotah Utahlolee."  
  
"Tekawathapotah OOtahlolee. Its a beuatifull name. Ummm. What does it mean?"  
  
"Place of soft waters."  
  
"Lovely. Why that name, though?"  
  
"There was a round lake, huge, and very salty there. It would softly wash on shore."  
  
"Salt lake?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"There is a lake around here, of salt."  
  
"May I go?"  
  
"I'll see if I can check you out."  
  
"Apalaytoosah, Thank you."  
The light shined off the water, making it glisten. Kosa'peg'gnoci walked down to its edge and closed her eyes. Breathing in the salty air, atlast. It brought back a flood of memories as she turned to face Federico, who she had taken to calling "Pekuwotha," or "My Child," and she nearly shed tears.  
  
"Can you tell me where you were taken, Kosa'peg'gnoci? Where Tekawathapotah Utahlolee was?"  
  
"Is."  
  
"Is." Federico repeated.  
  
"You are standing on it."  
  
Federico looked down.  
  
"Pekuwotha, I know this place. I recognize the trees, the inlets. This is Tekawathapotah Utahlolee. This is Place Of Soft Waters."  
  
Federico smiled. It was touching to see Kosa'peg'gnoci look upon her homeland that she hadn't seen in over 700 years again, and recognize every bend as though she'd never left.  
  
"That hill," she said pointing, "Is a burial site, Etuwahlotah."  
  
"May I contact people to excavate Tekawathapotah Utahlolee?"  
  
"Yes," she said, almost hesitating. "But Pekuwotha, please, don't tell them of Etuwahlotah. It is sacred. And they must not know about it."  
  
"You have my word."  
  
Federico smiled. If they could find Tekawathapotah Utahlolee here, it would prove the validity of Kosa'peg'gnoci for sure.  
  
"Mulder."  
  
"Mulder, it's me."  
  
"Oh, no. Is it Me-Me, or the impersonator-me."  
  
"The impersonator-me, and I resent that."  
  
"Hey, Federico."  
  
"HI ya'. I spoke with Kosa'peg'gnoci today. Lotta good information. You'd be surprised...."  
  
"Well. Tell me something I don't know."  
  
"Apparently, they, the Anasazi, were abducted cause they reminded the aliens about their origins. Its a whole mess of stuff, I'm faxing the details."  
  
"I see it," Mulder said, approaching the fax machine.  
  
"Where are you now?" He asked, reviewing it.  
  
"Salt Lake, we've uncovered something proving Kosa'peg'gnoci's validity....You and Sculls ought to come down here."  
  
Mulder cracked his neck, then hung up his phone. He set down the bag of groceries he had been carrying and made his way for the door. Scully was gonna be maadd. She really hated when they flew cross-country every other day when she didn't even think a case was worth sneezing over. 


	4. Maybe Proof?

Disclaimer: -----------------------The Drill------------- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ March 7, 2003 Salt Lake, Utah  
  
"Welcome to the Jungle," Mulder sang softly, as he and Scully ducked beneath huge equipment peices, and soon stood before a cliff.  
  
Scully rolled her eyes. She hated when he qquoted his favorite songs at times like these.  
  
"Am I seeing what I'm seeing, Mulder?" They looked below them, onto a massive excavation site, complete with adobe houses and pottery.  
  
"Mulder! Scully!" Federico called from below, running up the hill to meet them.  
  
Scully and Mulder slid down, meeting Federico half-way.  
  
"You must have really had some extra-time on your hands. I thought you were just interviewing the lady, not uncovering her whole life's story."  
  
"Gotta a little carried away's all, Mulder." Federico smiled.  
  
"Somebody fill me in?"  
  
"Did Mulder show you the file I faxed him?"  
  
Scully nodded. It was near sunset, and the temperature was dropping from death-defylingly-unbearable to livable-condition-though-I-may-die- eventually-heat.  
  
"Kosa'peg'gnoci recognized inlets in the lake here, and insisted this was the site of Tekawathapotah Utahlolee, her village," Federico explained. "I called in an excavation team, cause if we really found an Anasazi village, her story would be proven true. With her permission of course....There is one thing, that I haven't told them about. That mountain, its an Anasazi burial site, Etuwahlotah, or Place Of Resting Souls. Its sacred, and no one can know of it." She paused, then continued. "Archeologists of confirmned that this is an Anasazi village, from atleast 800 A.D. Kosa'peg'gnoci had said that they inhabited a village that was built by ancestors years before them. That's her, up ontop of Etuwahlotah...."  
  
"Didn't the archeoogists get suspicous of the mound?"  
  
"Yeah, but upon inspecting its formation, they said it didn't have the markings of an Anasazi ground, that it was indeed a hill."  
  
"Then, Kosa'peg'gnoci...."  
  
"She's not lying, she said that the chracteristics of hills thought to be Anasazi burial mounds are actually characteristics of a rival tribe, the So'pegwhatsi. No one is sure what happened to them either, and their villages were destroyed. She said they dissapeared before the Anasazi...."  
  
There was a brief silence, which Scully took to go ontop of Etuwahlotah. Kosa'peg'gnoci spoke to Scully before she even spoke.  
  
"This is a burial ground of my people." She never moved a muscle. "Centuries old.." She sighed, then snubbed the fire she had been burning in a ceremony of thanksgiving. She got up, and led Scully by the hand to a house in the village.  
  
"This is mine....It looks the same now as when....." Suddenly, she realized Scully couldn't understand her, that unlike Federico or Panus, Scully knew nothing of her language. "Pektah sopa." She waved her arms about, then pointing to herself, in genstures showing that this was her home. Scully smiled acknoledging that she understood.  
  
Federico smiled at Mulder as they watched Scully and Kosa'peg'gnoci talk in their own language, using gestures to explain.  
  
"Think she's got herself a friend." Mulder said.  
  
"We could learn alot from Kosa'peg'gnoci....not just her abduction." She pushed Mulder in their direction. He hesitated, then joined in the awkward conversation, as Federico followed close-behind.  
  
"Ah, Federico. Maybe now we can have a reall conversation?" Scully smiled.  
  
"Kaypah, Pekuwotha. Apotao te wahcohlotah?" ("Ah, My child. Maybe now we can have a reall conversation?")  
  
Federico laughed, and asnwered each woman in turn, using their own respective language.  
  
"I think you were doing pretty darn fine on your own!" "EKay pathoh, nowahasah teoh!"  
  
Mulder turned to Federico.  
  
"But I would like to ask her a few questions.....About her abduction...."  
  
Federico sighed....  
  
"Kosa'peg'gnoci? Echotaylotha pekohtah Mulder tuwahthahlotehayoh."  
  
Kosa, as Federico had begun calling her, nodded her head reluctantly.  
  
"Shoot, Mulder."  
  
"Ask her if they could morph."  
  
"Who? The Anasazi?"  
  
"No, stupid, the bounty hunters."  
  
"She never said anything-"  
  
"-Just ask her the darn question!"  
  
Federico sighed.  
  
"Kalagohtahpah ekrahehpah wahfor chepurahka aloomaka?"  
  
"Tusapay?" ("Bounty hunters?")  
  
"Echtar teloo."  
  
"Osah! Akapohu."  
  
Federico turned back to Mulder.  
  
"She didn't know what a bounty hunter was, I had to explain. In short.....Yes."  
  
Mulder smiled.  
  
"Ask her if any other races were there."  
  
"Ato pahk----uh, man, I wish I remembered more vocabulary----etulosah checugue?"  
  
"Erosmaku."  
  
Federico thought, her mind failing her as to what Erosmaku most nearly meant in Pueblo, and from there into English.  
  
"Yes.....she thinks....but she didn't see them, just heard the Taylotha Pahh talking."  
  
"Taylotha PAhh?"  
  
"Its what they call the aliens."  
  
"Oh."  
  
"What race in particular you looking for?"  
  
"Oh, you know...." He shuffled his feet a little. "Atlantians, Shangrilah....."  
  
"There is no scientific evidence to----"  
  
"----Cut the Scully garbage and ask her!....With all do respect to you, O, Scully of mine...." He added hastily.  
  
"Achopahk.....pahk....uh.....Pahktaylona dequarehzsopah'totah?"  
  
"Artonayquay guemahnteh."  
  
"Shrangilah? Atlantians? She never heard of them. She wants you to stick to the facts."  
  
"I think that last part is just Federico shinning through. Tell her thanks for her time...."  
  
"Ahkay so.......Kosa? Asutaynah, shopue?" ("He says thanks....Kosa? I'll be back in a minute.")  
  
The three agents walked off.  
  
"Scully? Did you ever establish the cause of death for the Roanoke girl?"  
  
Scully nodded. "Massive blood-loss. Massive, there was virtually nothing left for her heart to pump."  
  
"Any idea where it went?"  
  
Scully shook her head. "Lab facility, no doubt."  
  
"In the sky...." Mulder added quietly.  
  
"Why do you ask?" Scully asked Federico, ignoring Mulder.  
  
"Just curious....And uh.....Kosa happened to need a blood transfusion when she was found....."  
  
Mulder turned to Scully.  
  
"TOLD Ya'! TOLD YA'!"  
  
Scully and Federico brushed past Mulder.  
  
"That's right!," he shouted, removing a shell, "You'll see! You'll be lfat left one day, and then you'll see! ONE IS THE LONLIEST NUMBER!" He spat a shell in their path......."Sculls?......Federico?....Come back!!!! GUYS!?"\  
  
Utah Inn 8:40 P.M.  
  
Mulder opened his hotel room door.  
  
"Scully? What are you doing here this late?"  
  
"Autopsy report!"  
  
"I know you wish it were so, but I'm not dead yet."  
  
"Jane Doe, Mulder."  
  
"Oh, is that all." He said, making as though to close the door.  
  
Scully stuck her foot inside.  
  
"Open up, Mulder."  
  
She walked in. Sheesh, Mulder even made his hotel room look as messy as his desk and home. She pushed a pile of shells off his bed, onto the floor, removed the pair of jeans from the bed, and sat down.  
  
"Looky here................Remember John Doe?"  
  
"Who we left lying on the operating table? Yeah."  
  
"I was reviewing his records-"  
  
"-Scully, we left him in the hands of Detective Wright."  
  
"I know, I know, but it turned out for our-your-benefit! Look here. This is a strand of that junk DNA. John Doe had it. Here is Jane Doe. Had it. I took a look at Kosa'peg'gnoci, had it. All these abductees had the junk DNA that we so frequently encounter. If this is a pattern that is kept up, we could have a beginning as to why each group was taken."  
  
"John Doe wasn't abducted."  
  
"Three punture wounds to each cheek, massive blood loss, trauma to the forhead." She shook Jane Doe's papers before his face. "Sound familiar?"  
  
Mulder snatched up the papers.  
  
"Still doesn't make sense."  
  
"I know. Doesn't make sense to me either, but I expected YOU to make a connection."  
  
"Should I take it as an insult?"  
  
Scully Shrugged.  
  
Mulder put down the papers.  
  
"And Croatoan?"  
  
Scully shook her head, leaning back in the only chair in the room, poking her head into a plate of rice Mulder had out.  
  
"Bounty hunters?"  
  
"Naw. Why not pose as one of the colonists?"  
  
"Because they were more ideotic back then?"  
  
"Sometimes you really surprise me!"  
  
Scully sighed. If only they knew where to look, but so far, the only thing they had to go on was Kosa's good word, and a dead woman. She really needed to get back to D.C., to get back to Jane Doe. She wanted to come Roanoke again, though she was surprised at that. She knew Mulder would protest, so she decided to wait until morning, over breakfast. Maybe he'd be half- asleep and would agree without knowing what he's agreeing to?  
  
"Goodnight, Mulder," She said, heading out the door. "I just wanted to bring you that bit of evidence."  
  
"Night, Scully." 


	5. Musings Of Mulder, A Very Confused Man

Disclaimer: *whoo-hoo*  
  
7:30 A.M.  
  
Scully awoke with a start. Someone was pounding on the door. Rubbing her head, she pulled out her gun, approached the door, and looked outside. Mulder.  
  
"Hey," she opened the door. "What's up?"  
  
"It's 10, Scully. Whatever happened to meet me at the cafe' at 7?"  
  
Scully swung around to view her alarm clock.  
  
"Darn it. Sorry, Mulder, apparetnly my batteries were low. I'll be right there."  
  
Mulder smiled, and walked back to the cafe'.  
  
The cream colored walls would have soothed Mulder as he sat down and offered a Cappuccino. Scully walked in about 10 minutes later.  
  
"Hey. Ehm....Mulder? I need to get back to D.C. Take a look at Jane Doe."  
  
"Kosa not good enough for you?"  
  
Scully smiled.  
  
"She's wonderful. But I think the corpses are tryin' to tell me something."  
  
"Night of the living dead, eh, Scully?"  
  
"Something like that."  
  
"Well, Enjoy. I'm gonna stay here," Then he added, "But Doon't Be Frrightened!"  
  
She smiled, picked up her coat, and walked off to the airport. Her flight was in 2 hours.  
  
The moment Scully had left, Mulder let out a huge sigh. Though he was putting on the air that he thought that there was more to this case, he really didn't. A little birdy was telling him that they had the information they needed. She was an Anasazi, abducted, case closed? He sounded like Scully.  
  
He frowned at his cappuccino. If this was the end of the case, what had they actually accomplished? Not much, he was afraid. But then again, he sighed, where does our friend from Roanoke fit in? That was a puzzlement. Little bizarre, too. An X-File. He sighed.  
  
He walked over to the site of the Anasazi village a little later. And how did Kosa never age? That made no sense. All the same, he was dissatisfied with this whole case.  
  
He slid down the side of the cliff, and landed on the soft soil beneath him. The adobe houses were something right out of his imagination. He walked over to the one Kosa had designated as her own. It was the same of the others, really, just the little things that made it different. Like one wall was built on a slant, why was beyond him though. Behind him, something stirred. He whipped around, and found Kosa'peg'gnoci sleeping on a grass mat.  
  
"Kosa?" He shook her. She woke up with a start.  
  
"Kosa, what are you doing here?"  
  
She replied with a questioning look. Mulder pointed to her, waved his arms around, and then made a questioning look on his face, all the while repeating his question.  
  
"Okmagh." She held her heart. Mulder assumed she meant home. Then she mimicked the gestures he had made before. He smiled.  
  
"Curious." How was he going to show that?  
  
But she smiled, and seemed to understand. She lay back down, and slept.  
  
Mulder smiled, then turned back to look at the little knick-knacks, virtually intact since Kosa'peg'gnoci last left them. He sighed, then headed for the center of the village. Looking around him, he felt more forlorn than before. A flash came before him, a glaring white light, and he wasn't sure how long he'd been there.  
  
Back in D.C., Scully was making a y-incision in Jane Doe. She pulled back the skin, and unaffectedly, put her hands wrist deep in tissue. She calmly poked about, prodding at little organs, taking samples of tissues, removing samples of blood. The little vials neatly filled the rows, and she ran several scans, and a toxicology.Sometime later she would recieve the results. In the meantime, she walked back to her office. At least, now she had a desk.  
  
Mulder turned around to see Kosa. She didn't look well....He realized she wasn't even supposed to be out of the hospital. Carefully, he brought her back. He decided to let her continue treatment for a few days before going back to treat her. He went back to the Anasazi site. Sitting down by the lake, he smiled, thinking about what this place must have been like a thousand years ago. 


	6. Sighting Samantha

DiclaimeR: As Always. I Own Nahthing. Except. What I do own.  
"Mulder." His cell phone disturbed the peace.  
  
"Mulder? It's me." So it was SCULLY who disturbed the peace!  
  
"Hey, Scully."  
  
"Hi ya'. I've got some information on Jane Doe."  
  
Silence.  
  
"Mulder?"  
  
"I'm here."  
  
Scully paused. "Okay, ummm.....I think I know why she hasn't aged very much. There's.....I ran a toxic scan......SHe...ehh.....There's something that, uh, she was injected with.....there's a little puncture wound where the needle must have made contact, and, apparently, the toxic she was injected with caused to slow her aging processes by far."  
  
"What is this toxic?"  
  
"I-I wish I knew. Really. But it's nothing I've ever seen, or Danny, or......Mulder? Are you still there?"  
  
"I'm here, Scully."  
  
"I know you seem to feel very strongly for this case, though I don't really know why, but I do think we have everything we could hope to get out of it. Let sleeping dogs lie."  
  
"And what about Croatoan?"  
  
"I don't know, Mulder, but I don't think that has to do at all with the case, so leave it to historians. Mulder, why does this case matter so much to you?"  
  
"I don't know....I guess.....I guess.....I was hoping to get something, anything, about Samantha."  
  
Click.  
  
Mulder recognized it was time to give up. He went back to the hospital to say good-bye to Kosa.  
  
Outside, he saw Federico walking towards Kosa's room.  
  
"Federico?"  
  
"Hey! Mulder!" She paused and waited for him. "What're you doing here?"  
  
"Saying goodbye. This case is over, really. So. What're you doing here?"  
  
Federico smiled. "Much the same. I'm high-tailing back to D.C. as well. I have a flight first thing in the morning. I just wanted to bid her a fare- well, and tell her I'm gonna keep in contact. It was nice to talk to her. She's interesting."  
  
They stopped outside Kosa'peg'gnoci's room. Both hesitated.  
  
"Would you like to talk to her alone?" Federico broke the silence.  
  
"She won't understand me alone."  
  
"She might, if you keep it simple. She's caught on to English pretty quickly------for an 80-year-old....." She smiled.  
  
"Thanks." Mulder smiled, and walked inside.  
  
"Kosa?"  
  
Kosa turned her head and smiled at him.  
  
"Moolder, Pekuwotho."  
  
Mulder smiled.  
  
"Hi, Kosa. How are you feeling?"  
  
She grunted, and Mulder laughed. She was a character, boy.  
  
"That good, eh?"  
  
Kosa smiled.  
  
"I just wanted to say good-bye. I'm leaving tonight."  
  
Kosa smiled. "Take care, Pukowotho. I hoop to hear from you, soon."  
  
She hesitated. "No qua-.....qwaysons?" Mulder assumed she meant questions, at which point his interrogative side took over.  
  
"Not unless...."  
  
"I no mind." She smiled.  
  
"Who....Do you know that name 'Croatoan?' "  
  
"No. But it sounds......" She thought.  
  
"Familiar?"  
  
"Yes. Famileee-errr. Maybe I heard it from someone else on the canoe-in-the- sky? I no know."  
  
Mulder smiled. He should leave, he knew that, but something was on the tip of his tongue, something he needed to know, but Kosa'peg'gnoci seemed to be able to read his mind.  
  
"When I first saw you, Pekuwotha, I did noot know why you were so famileeeee-eeerrrr. I saw a girl, just like you, about 8-year-oold. I befriended her, and that's why I know you. She was your sister, Samantha."  
  
March 1, 1582. Roanoke Island.  
  
A wind swept through the village as Mary Swinn walked to the water. It was a peaceful, though she did miss England greatly.  
  
"INDIANS!!!! THEY'RE COMMING!"  
  
She ran wildly, not sure what to do. The local Native Americans, a band of Croatoans, were approaching, leading a force of men, who all looked alike. Tall men, who threatened them. The Croatoans seemed to have made a pact for safety with the men. They were lead to a spot where a beam was sent down on them, and Mary soon felt herself rising from the ground. All she could see anymore was the tree, the designated tree, where a panicked villager had written, "Croatoan." 


End file.
